Sponsor Couple, NFP, & Marriage Prep

John and I have been meeting with our sponsor couple and working on other marriage prep requirements for a few months now.


As part of our marriage prep through St. Vincent de Paul (SVdP) down here in Houston, we meet with a sponsor couple 5 times over the course of 6 months and discuss various topics relating to marriage (aka the good life after tying the knot). Topics have included prayer, finances, sex, family, communication... and things of that nature. It's been really nice discussing these major players in marriage with an older, more experience, really neat Catholic couple. They're in their early 30s and have been married for 10 years now. They're super friendly and artsy, and have given us some great advice about the road we're about to travel.

pictures make blog posts better

In case you're curious about Catholic marriage prep, I'll list some of the other things we've had to do in our preparation. We had to take that FOCCUS test (I mentioned it in a post a long time ago), meet with a deacon at SVdP twice to discuss said test's results, collect various pieces of paperwork (baptismal, first communion, and confirmation certificates, and affidavit's from both sets of parents), read and reflect in a question-and-answer book called "For Better and Forever" to accompany visits with our sponsor couple, and attend an Natural Family Planning (NFP) class. 


Let me talk for a second about the NFP class I went to. It was eye opening. There are many different forms of NFP, but I had heard a lot about the Creighton Model and decided to attend a class on that one. In 45 minutes, I learned more about my girly cycle than I've ever known up 'til now in my 24 years of life, and I'm shocked at how it all works... and how little most women know about it. Did you know that with simple daily observations you can figure out whether or not you're fertile? And the majority of the time, ladies, you're not fertile. If you track your cycle well, and abstain from "loving relations" (wink... if you know that I mean) for just a few days every month, you can avoid ALL forms of contraception FOREVER! And studies have shown that when done correctly, the Creighton Model is 99.5% effective in helping couples avoid pregnancy. Better yet, when you do decide to have kids, it can help you figure out if you have problems with fertility, why they exist (if they do), and what needs to be done to fix the problems (if possible). And all it takes are a few daily observations! 

pictures make blog posts better

Whew, I got a little carried away with my NFP explanation, but I was seriously shocked by most of what I learned in the class. It was great! I wish all women knew more about their cycles and how our bodies naturally work to achieve/avoid pregnancy. It's all prettttty darn neat. SCIENCE!


So, that's the bulk of the Catholic marriage prep. Most churches offer a weekend engaged encounter retreat or 6-month long series of classes in place of the sponsor couple, but we're super happy with the choice we made. We've gotten so much out of our marriage prep, and especially from our sponsor couple. In our opinion, the church (at least SVdP) has done a great job in creating programs to prepare their engaged couples for the beautiful, life-long, life-giving, serious, and sacred sacrament of marriage. So, no complaints here. Only smiles. 






*My apologies if I've come off as overly Catholic in this post. I'm just really excited about all the great things the church has done right for John and me in our marriage prep and wish to share with anyone who wants to listen :) 

Green

I've always loved the color green. Basically, ever since I realized that it looked good on redheads, green and I have been the best of friends.


I know I mentioned earlier that when we were deciding on wedding colors, we based it off the fact that green was going to be one of them. This narrowed things down quite a bit, as green doesn't go well with many colors. So, after a bit of research, the choice was easy! Green was a MUST and navy blue just so happens to compliment it very well. So, there you have it. 


Well, while checking out my favorite wedding blogs today, I came across this quote in the description of a wedding that used green and black/damask as their colors:


"Green is symbolic for nature. Growth. Harmony. Freshness. Green is also the most restful color for the human eye and suggests endurance and stability."


Endurance and stability! That definitely makes green the perfect color for a wedding :) 


And now, for some more green (to help you feel restful, harmonious, and stable)...

My shoes have been dyed green... 

... to match John's tie!

And this one's just because he's so darn handsome when he adjusts his (green) tie.

recent purchases

I've bought oodles of fun things on etsy.com recently. I've mentioned etsy before, but I'll throw it out there again... it's awesome. All handmade stuff from people just like you and me interested in selling their arts and crafts. It's heaven for brides. I go on there and am able to find almost anything I need wedding related.

Today I bought this:

from user annapanik

It's a flower for my hair! I'll be wearing it at the reception. I mentioned it to John and he said, "I've always thought you'd be beautiful with a flower in your hair." How sweet is that? Well... your dream comes true, Mr. Johnny boy.

I've also made some fun purchases for my bridesmaids! I can't mention exactly what I've gotten them (as I think most of them read the blog), but it involves jewelry and cutesy handbags :)

And I have my eye on this veil:

from user romancingtheveil

That's sort of the look I'm after for my veil. It's a bit longer than I'd like, but I love how the amount of tule isn't overwhelming and the pencil-thin edging is a nice touch. The one I want will be at about finger tip length.

On theknot.com (another great resource for wedding planning brides), John and I found these lovely napkins:

theknot.com

We ordered the pattern you see upfront... they say, "Eat, drink, and be married." How precious is that? They also have our names on them and our wedding date. We ordered 100 in that bright green color with dark navy lettering, and 100 in the navy color with silver lettering. A fine, fun little detail if I do say so myself.

John has also been extremely helpful in putting together the plan for the favors for our guests. My mom came up with the idea to give out luggage tags as favors (to go along with the "travel" theme). John and I did some research and we decided quickly that we didn't like any of the pre-made options available online. They were either too cheap/flimsy looking, too cheesy, or too far out of our price range. So, John took over and found these online: 

from embroiderthis.com

We only purchased one (to make sure it's what we want), but the plan is to get 175 of these, and fit them with something that has a design similar to our save-the-date. That way, we don't have to buy one with a cheesy design, or that doesn't quite go with all our color/theme plans. And my brother Matt has already agreed to help us design the inserts (thanks bro!). On the front of the insert, it'll say, "thank you" or our names/wedding date, and the backside will have space for guests to write their name, address, phone number, etc (to make it useable as a luggage tag). It'll be a fun, little DIY project for me and the fiance.

We still have some important wedding purchases in our near future, including groomsmen gifts, escort card materials, supplies for the tack-the-map "guestbook," and a few other fun decorative elements. I'll keep you guys posted as more purchases are made :)

Fitting #4

This past weekend, I had my 4th dress fitting. 4th! Can you believe that? And I still probably have about 2 more left.


I know I posted about a dress-fitting disaster that happened a while back, but things have been running smoothly since then. The bustle they ended up making looks pretty great and keeps the long train of the dress up in a fashionable way.


We've officially added two straps to the dress as well! When I went in for my 3rd fitting, there was still only one strap on the dress (that the seamstress had made). When I asked her why there was only one, she said she thought I only wanted one. Huh? One strap? So silly! So now there are two. And we've placed them almost perfectly along the strapless neckline of the dress. It's seriously a lot of work to position them just right. Even looking at pictures right now (which, sorry, you can't see yet!), I'm thinking we moved the straps a little too close together in the back. It'll just be more adjusting for fitting #5.


Also, because of my recent dieting and exercise, my gown is fitting even better these days. There was barely enough room for my bust when I originally bought the dress, making me just a liiiiittle self conscious about it... but now I have plenty of room up top and we discovered at the fitting that I don't even need to wear a bra with it anymore! How freeing :) hehe. So far I've said goodbye to 5.5 pounds and I don't miss them at all! And seriously, if you're thinking about losing weight, check out loseit.com. It's soooo easy to use and makes weight-loss simple!


I've gotten off track. Basically, the fitting went really well. The last thing I did was try on the belt (I posted a picture of it a while back) with my gown for the first time and it looked lovely! The seamstress and a few of the ladies working there said (no joke) it was the most beautiful bridal belt they had ever seen. How's that for encouraging?


Now, I wait til fitting #5... which isn't til mid-June!

Wedding Bands

John and I purchased our wedding bands last weekend.

Mine is the one made to match my Ritani engagement ring. We picked out platinum. It's almost identical to the band on my engagement ring. In the picture, it looks like the rings don't fit quite right together... that's because it was the sample ring! It was about 1 size too big. Don't worry, the wedding band will fit very snugly when it comes in.

My rings!

John's is a Novell 4 millimeter (that's the width! - very slim and European), milgrain palladium ring. Palladium metal is almost exactly like platinum except it's lighter in weight and not a precious metal, making it a much cheaper option. It scratches and wears the exact same way, though.The milgrain is hard to see in the picture, but they're little metal bumps around the edges of the ring.

Johnny's ring!

That last picture gives you a better idea of what milgrain looks like. I love it! Fancy, right? It reminds me of my dad because his wedding band has milgrain. Because I grew up looking at my dad's ring, when John and I started looking for bands for him, I kept suggesting milgrain... it was almost like it was planted in my head that a man's wedding band is supposed to have milgrain! Well, John ended up loving it, so there you have it!

They should be arriving in the next few weeks. That's one more thing to cross off the schwedding to-do list. Fab!

Centerpieces, Flowers, Etc.

During my week home, I had the opportunity to hang out with the florist (my mom's long time friend, Niki) and work on ideas for flowers and centerpieces. Here's the skinny...


There will be three different types of centerpieces. One centerpiece will involve three antique tea cups, planted with african violets and a vase of white flowers between them. The second centerpiece will have a stack of three antique books topped with a small, clear bottle holding white flowers. The third centerpiece will be a mix of different antiques (old milk jugs, a lantern, crackers tins, etc) accompanied by a vase of flowers. Each table will also have 3 votive candles. Some tables will have maps laid under the books, vases, tea cups, etc. to go along with our adventure theme. 

Here you can see some of the tea cups, a stack of old books, and
a tiny vase atop them. Also, our florist (Niki) is in the background.  

As for flowers, we have a variety of white flowers and leafy green plants (to pull in the green colors of our "blue and green" theme) and maybe even some succulents! Each bridesmaid will carry a different white flower (white roses, white hydrangeas, amaryllis, carnations, and I can't remember the rest), and my bouquet will be a big combination of all their flowers. 


Niki was so helpful while I was explaining my ideas ... she knows her flowers well and came up with some great arrangement ideas. And she also has a great artistic eye for things such as centerpieces. We even put together some more ideas concerning the seating cards, tack-the-map piece, and gift table. 


Also, a recent addition to our reception decor: my parents booked a rental of 150 silver chiavari chairs (because the chairs at the Radisson are red & gold and no bueno) AND uplighting for the room. We'll also be renting navy blue napkins to bring in the blue of our "green & blue" color scheme. 


If you've never seen chiavari chairs before, they're all the rage in the wedding scene. Especially when the reception hall you're renting out only supply VERY outdated and heinous-looking chairs. Here are some pictures of the chiavari chairs and uplighting. 

Silver chiavari chairs

Uplighting! Ours will probably be a mix of blues and greens.

100 days!

You read that correctly, folks. We're at the 100 day mark in the schwedding countdown! Can you believe it? It's been 197 days since our engagement. Wow, we'll be married before we know it!

I know I promised a post about the centerpieces and flowers about a month ago. Expect to hear more very soon. Just think a large variety of pretty, white flowers, tea cups, vintage books, random antiques, and small vases. That about sums up the flowers/centerpieces :) 

More to come later, but for now, I'm CELEBRATING!

100 days!!!